This week was a good week, good and busy. I do not have too terribly much to report, as I worked on a single project for almost the entire week. I continued to build a rather large section model for the McNichol’s project. The project is still in the design phase, so my supervisors and Dennis wanted to have a working model of the new entry to show the client. They have been bringing a model of the full building to all of the meetings so far, and that has been beneficial for the clients to see scale and massing and get a better understanding of what is going on for the project. Therefore I have spent the full week constructing and better understanding the building itself, their design and how that fits with the building, and being creative with supplies and how to construct this model. I was able to actually get pictures this time. Here it is:
Maddie Schneider's Internship 
Maddie that looks great!!! Have you enjoyed building the model this past week? How much of the building will you be constructing?
LikeLike
Actually yes. I did enjoy it, especially when everything started coming together. That is the only part of the building i built, as they are only doing work right now on the main entrance to make bold and Ada accessible.
LikeLike
That looks great! Are you working on these models by yourself or do others help out? Models are a great way to learn what a designer thinks is important about their design and makes it easier to see what looks good in 3D. It is also a good way to get clients involved who might find drawings challenging to read.
LikeLike
Precisely. It really helps us understand the project better and the scale. And it really helps the client. I did build the section model by myself, but in the full building I only built the plaza. The full building was probably built by some unknown intern many years ago when they did some facade and interior work in McNichols.
LikeLike
These models look amazing Maddie! What are they made out of ? Did you construct all of them?
LikeLike
Thank you Grace. They are made out of wooden dowels, foam core, and museum board, and plexiglass sheets. I built the entire section model myself, but only did the plaza on the full building.
LikeLike
Wow! This is impressive! It is nice to still see models built by hand and the amount of detail you have been able to include seems very well thought through. Do other people in the office typically build models as well or does it tend to fall to the interns? I am also glad you were able to get photographs of your work.
I am sure the client is grateful to have the model in the meeting to understand the massing and proposals. I know many of you are quickly realizing how difficult it is for many clients to read plans or even 3D perspectives. Have they been using the model since the very first meeting or was it created after the team realized the client wasn’t able to understand the other presentation material?
LikeLike
Thank you. Haha, most of the time interns will build models, but I have had one of the designers come down and help with this as well. I think they introduced the model when the client kept getting confused with the drawings.
LikeLike